Jason Nishiyama @evilscientistca@octodon.social
Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father.
Stefan's Quintet is a group of 5 galaxies in the constellation Pegasus. Four of the 5 galaxies are an actual compact galaxy group. The fifth is a foreground galaxy in the line of sight. https://octodon.social/media/KO9BAJ__NcphMgSrlMc
The galaxy M51 as seen by the 0.5m Baker-Nunn telescope of the Rothney Astrophysical Observatory. This interacting galaxy is about 24 million light years distant. https://octodon.social/media/FwsRa4JJDRlwpDJJcqU
Proto-planetary nebulae are a stage of stellar evolution between asymptotic giant branch stars and planetary nebulae. PPNe have characteristics of both AGB stars and PNe. PPN IRAS17106-3046 shown, image from Hubble Space Telescope data. https://octodon.social/media/EFskOOaoy26limvz0CY
Since most imagers for astronomy don't have eyepieces, a focusing mask is often used to help bring objects into sharp focus. https://octodon.social/media/1WlWCfPrwNRjbxoCPlA https://octodon.social/media/ia15pKPsGNweQW5DqCs
First five rows of new flooring in.
M103 is an open cluster about 7000 ly away in the constellation Cassiopeia. Open clusters like this one help us understand how stars evolve. https://octodon.social/media/cH4dTbefUoV1Nob9zss
Stars that are 8 times the mass of the Sun or larger end their lives spectacularly in a supernova explosion. The explosion is so great it outshines the galaxy the star resides in. Supernova remnant (SNR) M1 shown. https://octodon.social/media/69cb4Ns_dF0XiYLR7nE
The moving dot is the asteroid Pallus' motion over the period of an hour. This is how we look for asteroids. Take a picture, wait a bit, then take another picture and see what moves. https://octodon.social/media/cVZQ9yo9egcvMYWTgiY
Since globular clusters are generally filled with older stars we don't expect to see short lived blue stars in them. We do. They're called blue stragglers and may be the result of stellar mergers. (M13 shown). https://octodon.social/media/PM1CmmqW142B27_iVt4
Globular clusters tend to be made up of older low metal population II stars. M2 shown. https://octodon.social/media/Wi7WFaeczbLUY77AQtg
Asymptotic giant stars lose mass at a high rate. They eventually form planetary nebulae such as M57 shown here. https://octodon.social/media/sv9-m15jCYTcq4Svnxs
The North America and Pelican nebulae as seen by the 0.5m Baker-Nunn telescope at the University of Calgary's Rothney Astrophysical Observatory. https://octodon.social/media/fn9TE6ieS8SpJ-kLAII
I often don't show my science images as the planetary nebulae are often hard to distinguish from stars. PN NGC6058 in this field. https://octodon.social/media/WYC6SqfWhFxTMunTaOo
The 4 largest moons of Jupiter are easily spotted in a small telescope or pair of binoculars. https://octodon.social/media/WhPRI-i625r08SD7dpo
Most modern large telescopes are mounted on an alt-az mount as these are easier to engineer. Special mounting is needed for taking images as the field will rotate. (Though this explains polar alignment, it also explains field rotation: http://evl.link/2q) https://octodon.social/media/YWIYrhYTzqEHf7RtVi4 https://octodon.social/media/DWpnBt3mWc9YA5dH8lM
Different filters show different things. The left is M27 in the light of the hydrogen alpha emission line. On the right the sulfur II forbidden emission line. https://octodon.social/media/AQg9pqgK7Mp59LXgvt0 https://octodon.social/media/VEDfcAUhnLh48bE1bmA
As an aside, this is how astronomers take a selfie whilst visiting the Keck Observatory... https://octodon.social/media/gmsuHNPMyvhlONwCZEk
The Keck Observatory currently has the two largest telescopes in the world at 10m each.
They are both made of 36 hexagonal mirror segments held in alignment by computer controlled active optics. https://octodon.social/media/K5WyDBHNbyGQy-I1Hx4 https://octodon.social/media/blhY6FcwfijWzph07h4
M17 is a HII region located in the constellation of Sagittarius about 5500 ly from the Earth. It is a region of active star formation. It is sometimes called the Swan or Omega Nebula. https://octodon.social/media/7DBFmbz0JV-ia52FtpY
M33 is one of 3 large spiral galaxies in our Local Group of Galaxies. M31 and our Galaxy are the other 2. https://octodon.social/media/ZtQyeg5NNoQnn2AkyA4
